Architect Paul Rudolph

"Architecture is a
personal effort, and the fewer people coming between you and your work the better.
This keeps some people from practicing architecture...If an architect cares
enough, and practices architecture as an art, then he must initiate design;
he must create rather than make judgments." --
Paul Rudolph (1918-1997)

Paul Rudolph was the architect responsible for UMass Dartmouth’s original
master plan and the design of most of the buildings on campus.

Born in 1918 in Elkton, Kentucky, Rudolph graduated from the Alabama Polytechnic
Institute in 1940 and in 1941 began advanced studies at Harvard’s Graduate
School of Design. His studies were interrupted by World War II and three years
of service in the U.S. Navy. After the war, Rudolph returned to Harvard, where
he studied with renowned architect Walter Gropius. After a decade of success
designing private residences primarily in the South, Rudolph began to receive
commissions for larger public projects and in 1958 was named chairman of the
department of architecture at Yale University. It was here that he designed
one of his most famous works, the Art and Architecture Building, which was completed
in 1963.

Rudolph left Yale in 1965 to open his own firm, continuing to design inventive
and original buildings for both the public and private sectors. Like many architects
of the period, he believed that urban design could contribute to social reform.

Rudolph’s work exhibits a highly personal and uncompromising
style, and his buildings are designed to excite and challenge its occupants.
The strong vertical striations are obtained with either ribbed-block or ribbed
wood forms. Lively and rugged, his buildings are often made from exposed concrete
surfaces. The rough texture is achieved by hammering away at the poured concrete
to expose the inner aggregate. The interiors are dynamic, playing with light
and shadow, drama and abstraction. Beams slide past vertical supports; walls
are de-emphasized. Built-in furnishings enhance and divide the spaces.

Credits

This website about architect Paul Rudolph was created
by students in Management 365, a business class taught by Prof. Matt Roy. Working
in small groups, students select and work on a project that benefits the community.

Students in this group were Glenn MacGarvey and Gabrielle
Dion (content), Paul Szwaja (HTML coding), and Nick Molina (design and layout).
Glenn and Gabrielle attended the April 2005 “Paul Rudolph and the Architecture
of UMass Dartmouth” symposium offered by the University Library; much of
the information on these pages was gained at that symposium.

Photos are courtesy of the university’s PhotoGraphics
and Publications departments.

Special thanks to acquisitions librarian Bruce Barnes,
who chaired the Rudolph symposium and is embarking on his own major research
project on the architect, for his assistance in checking the facts on these
pages.

For more information about Paul Rudolph, visit the Paul
Rudolph Foundation or search for information about him in the university
library's online catalog, Voyager.